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Some of the worst mistakes of my life have been haircuts. ~ Jim Morrison

Went for a long slog on Sunday that turned into a bit of a death march. My original plan was to spin about 15 miles around Golden Gate but then I started trying to figure out where I would be able to get water during the journey and decided to just go for the mega loop.

I headed out around 8, planning to be home by noon but when it was all said and done, I had ticked off nearly 22 miles and had been out for just under 5 hours. Miles 13-18 were brutal (about 1700 feet of climbing in the heat of the day with little tree coverage). Overall though, it was a good run. Just not too pretty.

The next day I was very excited that I was only really sore from what I would consider impact stress (hips, feet a little). My legs felt fine. Sweet! I went back out on Tuesday and did some interval training around the neighborhood. After warming up for a couple of miles, I started in on 1×1 intervals and did 10 of these. Man, interval training is grim. After I got done with those, I waited until I got my heart rate back down and then ran at 80%+ for 15 minutes for a total run of about 1:15. Good stuff.

Wednesday got away from me and Rach and I are planning to go see Wall-E today so we’ll see what happens on the training front. I am going to postpone my Leadville decision until I can get to the point where I feel confident that I can finish without thoroughly destroying myself so that will have to wait until I log a solid, 20+ run without feeling like I might die.

Skiing tomorrow with the usual Crüe. Should be fun.

~stubert.

It’s Al Gore’s fault. ~ Plethora of Global warming deniers

Ladies and gentlemen, this Fall we could witness an event never before seen by human eyes. The polar ice cap may completely melt away. This, my friends, is not good (in case you haven’t been paying attention).

It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year.

…

Seasoned polar scientists believe the chances of a totally ice-free North Pole this summer are greater than 50:50 because the normally thick ice formed over many years at the Pole has been blown away and replaced by huge swathes of thinner ice formed over a single year.

Yikes. Read a synopsis here.

On a lighter note, Luke and I went for a singlespeed ride yesterday on the Sourdough Trail north of Nederland. Though I thought I would be able to hang, Luke pretty much kicked my ass as usual. I am going to fit the Humuhumnukunukuapua’a with a shock ASAP. Maybe that will help me keep up.

Hanging with Rach today and working on the deck. Hope to have that completed before we run up to the Melamed’s for dinner.

~stubert.

It is with deep regret that we announce today that the 35th running of the Western States 100-mile Endurance Run has been cancelled. ~ Greg Soderlund

On the super-mega-bummer-front, the Western States 100 which was to be held this weekend has been canceled due to spreading wildfires in the area. Currently, California has nearly 850 wildfires burning (Yikes!) and several are threatening the area around Squaw Valley in which the annual endurance run is held.

The Western States run is one for which runners have to qualify and is kindof a big deal in the UltraMarathon world so I really feel for those who prepared and anticipated being able to participate. In the grand scheme of things, the fires themselves are more of a bummer, affecting wildlife, property and people. Just a drag all around.

I have been working on my 70% training the last couple of days logging a couple of good efforts while trying to keep my heartrate down. Yesterday, I did a cool run up to the Park and around the Raccoon loop (roughly 8 miles) in 1:30 and followed that up today (paying much closer attention to my 70%) with a 7 miler along a similar route in 1:15. Good stuff.

That’s it for now. Think non-firey thoughts.

~stubert.

I hope those last days with her were lucid, heart-opening and helped with a sense of closure and celebrating life. ~ Jonny Copp

So aside from a blip last week where I live-blogged the Enduro, things have been pretty quiet around RunStuRun of late (as I am sure you have noticed). These last few weeks have been crazynuts. Rachel and I have been taking turns going over to Gunnison to help my dad care for my mom in her last days. She passed away two weeks ago after a long battle with cancer. Not good times, I can assure you. Take the quote above and reverse it in every possible way and you will get the experience we have all had to endure.

As most of you probably do not know, I have long been a proponent of physician assisted suicide. I even wrote my Senior Thesis on the subject after doing interviews and surveys of a large group of physicians. Their comfort with the subject was mixed but I feel strongly that we have the right to a dignified death. Unfortunately, there is a small yet vocal community here in the States that disagrees quite fervently. My guess is that few of them had to bear witness to the final weeks of a loved-one with terminal cancer. Let me just say, this is a shitty way to go.

So March and April saw Rach and I taking shifts at my mom’s bedside, seeing each other for a few hours every week or so as we became more and more familiar with the 200+ mile drive between my parents’ house and our own. I am off again this weekend to L.A. but am hoping to get some serious stay-at-home time in the coming month. Needless to say, I miss my sweetie and can’t thank her enough for all she did to help out with what was a repeat performance for her. Rachel’s mom died from cancer back in ’99 and Rach was her sole care-giver for her final two months. Knowing what doing this once feels like, I can’t really put words to how awful the repeat performance must have been.

So the last few weeks weren’t all bad. I did get to do a little skiing at the Butte (off the hook), got in a couple of runs in Gunny (flat pavement is a bit boring), did the Enduro with Luke (56 runs, ~112000 feet of vert, not too shabby), and have started running again in order to try to get into shape for the summer’s fun and/or games.

I did a short run in the woods around our house on Tuesday that quickly turned into a bit of a lost-in-the-woods post-holing hike but it was fun to get out. There is still too much snow up high so I’ll have to stick to the roads up here for a bit. Yesterday, I decided it would be a good idea to run Flagstaff and Green Mountains in Boulder. Roughly 10 miles with feet of climbing. I didn’t run a lot of this as I am still working into my running fitness and was pretty hammered by the time I made it to Bear Canyon but feel okay about the effort in general. I was quite a bit off my pace from the same run (roughly the same time) last year but that was a spectacular run and like I said, I am still working on my running fitness right now. With only 6 runs or so tallied for the year, I feel good about my performance.

So there you go. The Cliffs Notes version of what is happening in the world of Stu. I am still hoping to break 70 ski days this year (63 thus far) and am really looking forward to a lot of long runs in the coming months. I would also like to build a garage but need to get my act together to get that done. As always, I’ll keep you posted.

~stubert.

56 runs. I am destroyed.

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